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If you had ever been there you would know that the residents are left-leaning, forward thinking people who are very proud of those wind turbines. They are incr

If you had ever been there you would know that the residents are left-leaning, forward thinking people who are very proud of those wind turbines. They are incredibly eco-conscious and would roll their eyes at your statement, invite you in for tea and tell you how proud they are of those turbines. Esbjerg is one of my favorite places in the world, also the tiny island next to it called Fanø. I’ve been there twice every year for the past 7 years. I was married there. Almost all of the (Fanø) houses are thatched-roofed hobbit houses, people rarely knock before entering neighbors’ houses and it is super quiet (except for the fog horn). Esbjerg is a small (70k) person university city, lots of student co-ops, some industry and a strange phenomenon of stolen / discarded bicycles laying on the side of the roads (not downtown, but a km out of the center on the through-roads). The uni there has great environmental science, chemical engineering, biology, and marine biology (and marine archaeology!) programs. I couldn’t imagine a place where this is more appropriate.

supergirl 6y ago
sounds like it's a nice, picturesque, quiet place. now they got 200 wind turbines powering Apple's data center. it's not even powering their homes. how are they benefiting from this exactly? what are they proud of? Apple is just going to open more data centers, hardly eco-friendly. Related from Germany, Netherlands: https://www.datacenter-forum.com/datacenter-forum/datacenter-gate-dutch-province-to-court-to-ban-energy-guzzling-microsoft-data-center https://www.datacenter-forum.com/datacenter-forum/datacenter... https://www.dw.com/en/the-germans-fighting-wind-farms-close-to-their-homes/a-51417653 https://www.dw.com/en/the-germans-fighting-wind-farms-close-....
- ic0n0cl4st 6y ago
  To begin with, those wind turbines don’t build or wire themselves, now do they? Just the construction creates a lot of good jobs, so does the maintenance work involved. So does the infrastructure built and maintained to get that power into the grid. This is all good for the economy. The datacenter helps grow the tech industry here, the benefit of this should really be self-evident. All my comments above in terms of the construction and maintenance of the turbines also applies here. These are offshore windfarms in a quiet seaport city next to the existing industrial area. It’s not like these are downtown.
  - supergirl 6y ago
    data center and wind turbines don't need much maintenance. that's why both can be offshore. they need some low skill maintenance. so you shouldn't expect to see a tech hub growing around a data center or wind turbine farm. and they are not built there of course. data center is just a warehouse with server containers. wind turbines are probably built in germany
    - ic0n0cl4st 6y ago
      Sure, I’m sure you are 200% correct. This will be nothing but a resource drain, and will have $0 economic benefit whatsoever. That’s why so many regional and international governments clamor to attract datacenter projects. Because they are trying to get absolutely nothing out of it whatsoever. The datacenter and wind mills are just built in another country, flown in by helicopter, plopped down, turned on, and subsequently ignored and 100% self-maintained. I don’t think you can see beyond your dislike of wind power to actually understand the economic impact of large projects like this. Where did you get the idea that the viborg datacenter is offshore? https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/09/03/apples-viborg-denmark-data-center-is-operational-powered-100-by-clean-energy https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/09/03/apples-viborg-den...
    - ic0n0cl4st 6y ago
      I’m sure the construction of those other datacenters will also mean nothing to the economy. Also, as we have seen in The Dalles, Oregon over the past 15 years, the inevitable increase in fiber and power capacity to this region, which will attract dozens of other datacenters to the area, will also have zero economic impact to anybody whatsoever.
    - ic0n0cl4st 6y ago
      Nor will there be any privacy benefit to the Danes knowing their Apple data is stored within the borders of their nation or having lower latency to these services. The only reason this is being done is to destroy the world with wind turbines.
- ic0n0cl4st 6y ago
  > Apple is just going to open more data centers, hardly eco-friendly. Would you rather Apple build these datacenters in a nation with coal power? European datacenter construction is heavily concentrated in Ireland or UK. Denmark has plenty of coast and a diverse power grid. It is also one of the most efficient, competent ecologically and socially responsible governments in the world. It is clearly better to build datacenters there than in say Romania or Serbia. Please don’t tell me your next argumentnis going to be about bird deaths or ear cancer.
  - supergirl 6y ago
    something else too look forward to if you live next to a data center: https://netherlandsnewslive.com/data-centers-in-north-holland-can-lead-to-drinking-water-shortages/114735/ https://netherlandsnewslive.com/data-centers-in-north-hollan...
PascLeRasc 6y ago
That sounds like a beautiful place. I’m reading more about it but if you have any more stories or photos from your trips I’d like to hear and see them.

supergirl 6y ago

sounds like it's a nice, picturesque, quiet place. now they got 200 wind turbines powering Apple's data center. it's not even powering their homes. how are they benefiting from this exactly? what are they proud of? Apple is just going to open more data centers, hardly eco-friendly. Related from Germany, Netherlands: https://www.datacenter-forum.com/datacenter-forum/datacenter-gate-dutch-province-to-court-to-ban-energy-guzzling-microsoft-data-center https://www.datacenter-forum.com/datacenter-forum/datacenter... https://www.dw.com/en/the-germans-fighting-wind-farms-close-to-their-homes/a-51417653 https://www.dw.com/en/the-germans-fighting-wind-farms-close-....

ic0n0cl4st 6y ago
To begin with, those wind turbines don’t build or wire themselves, now do they? Just the construction creates a lot of good jobs, so does the maintenance work involved. So does the infrastructure built and maintained to get that power into the grid. This is all good for the economy. The datacenter helps grow the tech industry here, the benefit of this should really be self-evident. All my comments above in terms of the construction and maintenance of the turbines also applies here. These are offshore windfarms in a quiet seaport city next to the existing industrial area. It’s not like these are downtown.
- supergirl 6y ago
  data center and wind turbines don't need much maintenance. that's why both can be offshore. they need some low skill maintenance. so you shouldn't expect to see a tech hub growing around a data center or wind turbine farm. and they are not built there of course. data center is just a warehouse with server containers. wind turbines are probably built in germany
  - ic0n0cl4st 6y ago
    Sure, I’m sure you are 200% correct. This will be nothing but a resource drain, and will have $0 economic benefit whatsoever. That’s why so many regional and international governments clamor to attract datacenter projects. Because they are trying to get absolutely nothing out of it whatsoever. The datacenter and wind mills are just built in another country, flown in by helicopter, plopped down, turned on, and subsequently ignored and 100% self-maintained. I don’t think you can see beyond your dislike of wind power to actually understand the economic impact of large projects like this. Where did you get the idea that the viborg datacenter is offshore? https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/09/03/apples-viborg-denmark-data-center-is-operational-powered-100-by-clean-energy https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/09/03/apples-viborg-den...
  - ic0n0cl4st 6y ago
    I’m sure the construction of those other datacenters will also mean nothing to the economy. Also, as we have seen in The Dalles, Oregon over the past 15 years, the inevitable increase in fiber and power capacity to this region, which will attract dozens of other datacenters to the area, will also have zero economic impact to anybody whatsoever.
  - ic0n0cl4st 6y ago
    Nor will there be any privacy benefit to the Danes knowing their Apple data is stored within the borders of their nation or having lower latency to these services. The only reason this is being done is to destroy the world with wind turbines.
ic0n0cl4st 6y ago
> Apple is just going to open more data centers, hardly eco-friendly. Would you rather Apple build these datacenters in a nation with coal power? European datacenter construction is heavily concentrated in Ireland or UK. Denmark has plenty of coast and a diverse power grid. It is also one of the most efficient, competent ecologically and socially responsible governments in the world. It is clearly better to build datacenters there than in say Romania or Serbia. Please don’t tell me your next argumentnis going to be about bird deaths or ear cancer.
- supergirl 6y ago
  something else too look forward to if you live next to a data center: https://netherlandsnewslive.com/data-centers-in-north-holland-can-lead-to-drinking-water-shortages/114735/ https://netherlandsnewslive.com/data-centers-in-north-hollan...

PascLeRasc 6y ago

That sounds like a beautiful place. I’m reading more about it but if you have any more stories or photos from your trips I’d like to hear and see them.